Follow up a reading of The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me by Roald Dahl with this collaborative lesson on teamwork. Starting with a fun team game, learners go on to investigate examples of teamwork in the story before...

Encourage your students to interact with the text as they read. While reading "Three Skeleton Key," class members note predictions, define words and study their meanings, take notes on how the suspense builds, and jot down ideas...

Learning how to draw inferences from text is a key reading comprehension skill. Here's a worksheet that gives readers a chance to practice by offering 20 descriptive sentences and asking kids to identify the inferred character...

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader guide includes chapter-by-chapter vocabulary lists and quizzes, discussion questions and writing prompts, and an explanation of Narnia expressions. Great for mainstream classrooms and homeschool situations.

Focus on the literary themes of Kyoko Mori's Shizuko's Daughter with an anticipation guide. Kids read statements about respect, abandonment, and love, and mark their agreement or disagreement before beginning the novel. After they...

Designed for Hard Gold, a novel in Avi's I Witness series, this teaching guide includes a summary of the story and information about the writer as well as chapter-by-chapter vocabulary lists, text-based reading questions,...

Asking questions about the text is an important way for kids to become critical readers. Use a QAR activity based on The Devil's Arithmetic to help learners decipher between questions that are right there, between the author and the...

Endeavor. Qualm. Stolid. Fortitude. Filial. Bingo! As part of their study of Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, class members engage in a vocabulary bingo game.

Considering organizing a speech and debate club? check out this packet that contains all the information you need to get started.

Begin your unit on Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting with a pre-reading activity about the novel's themes. As class members ponder five questions that reflect the book's themes, they talk about their opinions in...

Sensory details can enhance the reading experience, especially during a guided imagery reading. Young readers close their eyes and listen to a passage from Sharon Creech's Walk Two Moons before responding to discussion questions and...

Take a journey with your class as they explore the different settings from Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. Middle schoolers write postcards in first person as if they were the characters of the story.  

Many people think Cinco de Mayo is the celebration Mexican independence, but they're incorrect. Learn about the battle of Puebla and the victory of General Zaragoza with a short reading passage that includes comprehension and vocabulary...

If a bar of chocolate was on the floor, would you try to pick it up? What if it was covered with glue? The eighth lesson in an 11-part unit designed to accompany The Twits by Roald Dahl has scholars imagine crazy scenarios. The...

Thanks to Gary Paulsen's Hatchet, teen readers now know it's possible to survive in the wilderness. A study guide for the novel discusses common topics and vocabulary words found within the text. Additionally, readers get the chance...

Everyone takes a different journey through grief. A series of lesson plans for the novel Counting by 7s introduces readers to the main character who loses her parents in a car crash. Discussion questions and writing prompts combine...

How can learners evaluate research sources for authority, accuracy, and credibility? By completing readings, discussions, and graphic organizers, scholars learn how to properly evaluate sources to find credible information. Additionally,...

What does your character reveal about you? Scholars carry out several activities to determine the reveal of character in Flowers for Algernon. Readers answer text dependent questions, complete diary entries, write reflections, and use...

Have your young readers practice phonetic analysis skills with onsets and rhymes. Groups of young scholars create animations in PowerPoint to demonstrate combining beginning letters with rhyme patterns.

Young historians study civilian Arkansas during the Civil War. They look at the many challenges they faced to keep their homes in order while the men were at war. Learners hear stories of bands of outlaws who ravaged the state during...

Students investigate historical figures and how they play a role in tourism by reading and discussing the article "When Robin Hood Supped, Was it Yorkshire Pudding?" In groups, students investigate issues related in the article in...

Should organized prayer be prohibited at high school sporting events? Students explore their own feelings about prayer in school-sponsored events, before discussing the recent Supreme Court decision banning public prayer at high school...

Enter the fantastical world of  "Dungeons and Dragons" and other role-playing games with this lesson from The New York Times. Middle schoolers create the outline for a role-playing game based on their own community. Then, they...

Is the circus a form of theater? Read "A City of Clowns? What Else Is New?" to sway your class that a circus, is indeed, a theatrical performance. Critical thinkers compare/contrast various forms of theater and identify what makes the...